How did you book the Halloween gig? We actually booked the show with The Depot and invited a number of bands along. We are really good friends with Kilmaine Saints, so, of course, we wanted them on the bill. And we didn't want to follow them. They're just that good. (The others) are bands that we've played with before.

How did the band get together? I called Jon and Simon who were previously of the band Chuggernaut. I knew they split up, and my previous band The Machetes split. We decided to get together and try to see what we could come up with. We went through at least three different drummers before we ended up with Wayne. All of us got together, and we played some material I had written previously and worked on some new stuff. Everything just gelled. This was just supposed to be for fun. (We) play out a couple times a month, and let it be was it (is). Of course, when we go in with (that mentality) we end up being more successful.

Where else have you played? We've played the Dragonfly (Club) up in Harrisburg. We've played the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center up there. We've been up to Brooklyn. We're going up to Boston in November. We're getting around. Now that I look back on it, the only place we've played in York is The Depot. That's probably the only club that's open to original music and also our type of original music, since we're not really mainstream rock at all.

Describe your sound/style. I'd say we're an old-school-type punk rock 'n' roll (band). It's definitely punk rock. There (are) a lot of melodies and rock elements to it. A lot of people who don't like that genre of music do like us simply because we have . . . a lot of vocal harmonies. The songs are set out to have a message behind them. I'd say if we had to be compared to anybody (it would be) a band from Boston called the Street Dogs . . . and Face to Face from California. It's very underground, but at the same time it's accessible to everyone.

Did you guys play punk in previous bands? The last two bands that all of us have been in (have) been punk rock outfits. Pretty much all of us have played in rock bands over the years, too. It seems like the older we got, the more we gravitated toward punk. It seems like it would be the opposite: As you'd grow, you'd mellow out a little bit. But we definitely haven't mellowed out. I think we like to speak out a little bit more about what we believe than we did previously.

What kind of messages do your songs have? We don't get political. We leave that to the bands that have been doing that for 20-some years. We just have messages about certain things in the lyrics. A lot of it's influenced by the news or what's going on around us. There (have) been a lot of things over the past couple of years with all of us in our lives that have affected the way we see things. We've written about friends who've died and things of that nature.

How did you guys come up with the name? That's one that I put a lot of thought into and one that I went over with the guys. Again, with getting older, I don't want to have random names that don't mean anything. We thought about it (and) there is always polar opposites to everything. When you get into more of the religious aspects of things . . . there are saints and sinners. There is also happiness and sorrow. You have to have one to truly define the other.

What else is coming up for you guys? We have a lot of good stuff coming up. We're going to book another show at The Depot in December for a Christmas thing. We're obviously around Harrisburg and Lancaster. We're trying to hit Baltimore. We are working on hammering a time to go in and record. (A member) of the Kilmaine Saints has a studio that we're going to go in and hammer out a bunch of songs and just do it old-school, instead of all the pre-production and trying to make it sound all pretty and professional.

Any special touches to the Halloween show? We're going to do our regular material (and) maybe throw in some fun stuff here and there. I'm sure the Kilmaine Saints will also. We're having a costume contest for the evening with a lot of prizes that are sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon, The Depot (and) Roburrito's. You know, everybody has parties, but we want to throw our own little party at The Depot where, you know, more than 20 people can show up.

Any idea what you guys will be? No clue. We won't know until the last minute. We never do.

- ERIN McCRACKEN, FLIPSIDE STAFF

If you go

The Saints of Sorrow, Kilmaine Saints, The Boregasms and Boots will rock from 8 p.m. Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday at The Depot, 360 W. Cottage Place in York.

There will be a costume contest from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. Prizes will be awarded.